Where did the name Kirtland Bird Club come from?

The Kirtland Bird Club is named for Dr. Jared Potter Kirtland - physician, naturalist, botanist, abolitionist, public health advocate, politician, philanthropist, and co-founder of Case Western Reserve's Medical School.

​Read about him on the website of Case Western Reserve University here and on the website of Cleveland Historical here.

Read Dr. Kirtland's January 1850 account of the degradation of the Western Reserve published in the Spring 2005 issue of the Ohio Cardinal.  Read which species had been affected at that point by the westward migration of European settlers.  Compare his observations from 1850 to what we find here today!​

A Little Bit about the Ohio Cardinal - from the website of the Ohio Ornithological Society:

"In 1978, The Ohio Cardinal was born of a need to bring Ohio’s birding community together, to share all available information about our bird life, to sharpen our enjoyment of, and expertise in, the observation and study of those birds, and to act as a permanent record of bird occurrences in the state. Today these remain the goals of our publication.

"The Cardinal began as, and remains, a collaboration among Ohio birders, with hundreds sharing in each issue sightings reports, photographs of unusual birds, artwork, articles, or field notes. Each issue features a comprehensive summary of the season’s observations across the state, highlighting not only the unusual but also interesting patterns discernible in the usual. Reports from the Ohio Bird Records Committee appear regularly."